Thwaites Old Dan

Posted by on Jul 20, 2011 in English Beer | No Comments

Blackburn’s Thwaites Brewery have been upping the ante recently, announcing a few new interesting beers to their core bottled range. We’re all huge fans of everything Lancashire here on the BeerCast – apart from Shovels of course, as he hails from the wrong side of the Pennines. However, even he forced Thwaites Double Century through gritted teeth in our 2008 Beer of the Year Show – although it didn’t win, shot down by the all-round drinkability of Hop Back Summer Lightning.

Founded in 1807 by Daniel Thwaites, the eponymous brewery have retained loyal to their roots – still producing their beer from the Blackburn base they originally occupied. Renowned for their love of dray horses – the symbol of the company – tradition plays a big part in their outlook (critics of the red rose county would say that’s all we have – I would counter with a butter pie in the face). Back in 1957, on their 150th anniversary, Thwaites produced an old ale called Old Dan“a splendid warming strong ale in the nip sized bottle.”

Nips (i.e. thirds of a pint) were the way these hearty ales were distributed – different to the nips up here in Scotland, obviously – but still necessary given the higher alcohol content sported by these old ales. Old Dan waned in popularity since the late 50’s – but has recently been revived as a 7.4% Fuggles-laden ‘super-premium’ brand. Modernity having caught up (certain parts of Yorkshire excepted) the bottles are now, inevitably, 330ml – but they still look pretty smart. Even the wonky rear label is apparently intentional (a nifty trick if the bottling plant malfunctions).

Old Dan pours chestnut brown and totally flat, with a single lonely stream of rising carbonation. The label proudly sports the ‘bottle conditioned’ tag, but it has actually been filtered and re-seeded, which really doesn’t add much to the equation. Some alcohol comes out on the nose, with sweet caramel and toffee, and a touch of dark stone fruit. Big, warm, fruity malt flavours take over from the start – plums, damsons lead into an increasingly sweet, malty finish. More booze arrives as the beer goes down. It’s remarkably mellow for 7.4%, and is really rather good indeed. Lancashire’s answer to Theakston’s Old Peculier?



Thwaites Official website

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